MAMMOTH MOVES

Paul van Gelder: In 2018 we formulated the strategy ‘Reshape to Win’. At that point in time, it was already a strategic imperative for us to diversify our portfolio into other sectors next to petrochemical - which will always be a substantial part of the work we do. We saw the developing renewable energy market as an interesting sector, and a market where we could do more. Over the last five years we have gained more experience working in the sector – learning some key lessons along the way. During 2020 we saw a significant acceleration in renewables projects in Western Europe, and also in the US with the change of government. If you take a step back and look at what is happening in the world, you can’t deny that there is a clear push to come out of the coronavirus crisis with a stronger focus on sustainability and renewable energy. Jan Kleijn: From an operational perspective, if you look to offshore wind, the turbines are getting bigger and bigger, so more and more clients will need the expertise of a company like Mammoet to deal with the increasing size of heavy components involved. Darren Adams: There’s also a clear overlap with offshore wind. These projects share many key features of the work we are used to doing in the oil and gas fabrication yards from an operational perspective and are taking place in similar locations – making us well placed to serve them.

PvG: The foremost challenge is of capacity. After the acceleration in demand for renewables projects experienced during 2020, there is a huge need for capacity in the market. So, the large OEMs will have to deliver to the market the required number of turbines - but the supporting industries should also be ready. This is an area where the market needs some further maturity. We’ve seen in the onshore wind market that the setup of contracts was not allowing efficient

operations, and for the respective contractors and sub-contractors involved to concentrate on their key areas of expertise. So, to a certain extent the structure of the contracts, their risk balance, needs to standardise and mature; most likely to follow the model laid down for a number of decades in other sectors. JK: In onshore wind, I think what we will see is a renewed definition of the roles of the players. Due to the relative youth of the market, manufacturers have also been playing the role of installer, where this is not their core area of expertise. However, they have been forced by a lack of capacity in the market to take this role. In offshore wind up to now, farms have been either monopile or jacket-based; so shallow water. As floating offshore wind develops, we will see floating foundations of tens of thousands of tonnes – creating an entirely new ball game once again. DA: The size and weights of components could cause a bottleneck in the market, particularly for offshore wind. The traditional way of doing things - where tower sections are assembled one by one then go offshore - is unlikely to ultimately be the preferred assembly method. We’re looking to innovate in the offshore wind market with regard to the handling onshore, and as the industry leader we want to be a partner in this process. We’re looking into innovations that will deliver huge efficiencies and therefore substantial changes in the way the market works. PvG: A requirement will develop for heavy lift and transport companies to move into larger weights, because these floating structures can become massive, massive beasts - demanding a lot of lifting capacity. There will be a lot of work in the shipyards but also on land.

Moving back to onshore wind, to manage projects most efficiently the market needs to develop and mature, and to recognize that it doesn’t make sense to give certain tasks to certain subcontractors. A heavy lift and transport company is specialised in these functions - transport and lifting - so it is not efficient to also put installation & commissioning under the responsibility of the same sub-contractor. That is a different area of expertise and mixing those will result in all kinds of discussions and potential conflicts, which is in the end not good for the development of larger renewable energy projects.

JK: I don’t see that at the moment, though there may be a renewed requirement for mobilization

A requirement will develop for heavy lift and transport companies to move into larger weights, as these floating structures can become massive, massive beasts – demanding a lot of lifting capacity.

of large cranes to ports. Also, through our Conbit operation, we are researching how to perform maintenance offshore in a smart way. This will help our customers to avoid bringing the floater back to the port and then needing to have a large crane in place just for maintenance activity, and also help them to avoid having to disconnect anchor cables and re-connect the turbines to the electrical grid again. PvG: Because we are still in the infancy phase of this industry – especially with the floating wind turbines – we will see new developments in how to perform much of its scope. The industry has a long way to go and as the market leader in heavy lifting and transport we are looking to play an important role in leading this.

PvG: We have decided to set up a global onshore wind group; a group of specialists that will develop our wind portfolio. This will not change the present setup of the regional structure in Mammoet - we will continue to undertake projects through our regions - but this group will oversee all the wind projects in the regions, capture lessons learned, optimize wind-specific assets and also liaise with the Innovations department to find the right innovations to serve this key market.

PvG: I’m not ashamed to say that we have certainly learned our lessons in the past. It should not be a secret to the industry that there are challenges coming with lump sum projects - both for the developers but also the sub-contractors in heavy lifting and transport. The lesson that we have experienced is that combining transport, craneage and installation (TCI) is not the ideal approach. In onshore wind, work takes place in an area that can by definition cause delays, thanks to windy conditions, geographic remoteness or other factors., This makes lines of responsibility blurry if the entire TCI scope is undertaken by one sub-contractor. We are promoting a model where the scope is divided with transport and craneage in one hand and installation on the other hand, whereby it’s clear for the developers who holds the responsibility and it’s clear in which direction they need to turn if things are not running as they should be.

We feel comfortable and have undoubted capability in transport and craneage, but installation and commissioning are not part of our core services, so it is better that these scopes are undertaken by specialists in these disciplines. The key here is to have focus and clarity of roles. If you have that,

this ultimately gives the developer a platform to have clear contracts in place, and also a better way to assess performance.

If you take out this blurring, you also remove much of the risk of a project. It’s like building a house: whenever you have a delay with the carpenters, the carpenters will start to complain and point at the bricklayers, and the bricklayers will potentially blame the team that laid the foundations. Making sure there is clarity in the roles will help developers or EPCs to manage projects better. Installation, commissioning, controlling the full logistics supply chain – these are activities that require completely different expertise. JK: There’s a comparison to be made with oil and gas here, too. There, you have an owner who hires an EPC contractor for the total package, who then has knowledge of the total scope of work and can request heavy lifting and transport through a freight forwarding company, or from a company like Mammoet.

DA: We would like to work more closely with freight forwarding companies, from the very early stages of projects. This will help us to provide guidance from the very start of projects on what is possible in terms of transportation, and hence allow our customers to realize significant whole-project efficiencies.

We recognise that owner/operators of large facilities work with freight forwarders to streamline the shipment of both smaller project cargo and larger items, and that it can be more efficient to package these transportations together. PvG: This forms the next step of a strategy that we initiated in 2018, which was to bring focus to the services we provide to the market. We have been doing that in several areas, but we decided not to refocus in this area until now because of the acquisition of ALE. ALE was a strong partner for freight forwarders – we decided to follow this strategy and concentrate on optimising the service we provide to freight forwarders. This is what we are doing, and we’ve had initial successes: for example, we have

If Mammoet talks to freight forwarding companies early on during projects it can present the toolbox that it has available to see what efficiencies are possible.

Mammoet’s in-house department ensures sure that the right equipment is at the right place at the right time. teamed up with OFCO; a joint venture between Abu Dhabi Ports and Allianz Logistics, which positions Mammoet strongly to supply our services to all major projects carried out during the coming years in the Middle East and Africa. DA: This is about growth, and about focusing our expertise where it will create the value – and this will vary on a project-by-project basis. Sometimes we’ll be working with freight forwarders, but there will be some occasions when freight forwarders will be working for us. For example, if we receive a request to bid for a project with a majority breakbulk cargo, Mammoet might be invited to take the lead on its transportation, due to the size of the loads. However, we will align the specific work scopes accordingly, and this will have the positive sideeffect of de-risking the project for all involved. We are not saying that we’re never going to take on the shipping – we will if needed - but we’ll do it in partnership with a forwarder.

DA: I think we would like to be involved earlier in the sales process. From an operational point of view this will allow us to deploy the assets to where they need to be on a global perspective, and it will allow our customers greater clarity on what is possible, earlier on during projects. PvG: When certain key decisions are made early on during projects, it can be difficult to adjust them later, and then the opportunity for greater efficiencies - either in the supply chain or in production output at the end facility - are sadly lost. So, to provide the best service to freight forwarders we need to be involved early in the process. This early involvement allows us to sit down with customers and look at the engineering that is needed for each project and provide guidance on what we can lift, what we can transport, what the sizes of the modules should be, and so on. That way, the customer will also benefit. JK: Our customer can expect from us a transparent conversation about what it is possible for us to do, so that we can help them to succeed. DA: This extends across the whole project scope. If we talk to freight forwarding companies early on during projects we can present the toolbox that we have available to us as a business to see what efficiencies are possible. For example, we have the MTC 15 crane, which is a modular crane that is easily assembled and disassembled. This crane could be positioned in the middle of the jungle, theoretically

creating a heavy lift terminal in the middle of nowhere, perhaps meaning our customer wouldn’t need to charter heavy lift ships, saving time and money over the project cycle.

JK: Since we are a market leader and every day we undertake projects all around the world, we have focused on the transportation of our own equipment. We have an in-house department that achieves this in the most economical way for us, making sure that the right equipment is at the right place at the right time. At the same time, upon request of certain customers we have in the past utilised these structures to provide logistics as a service to our customers for third-party cargo.

PvG: It’s my personal belief that in our industry there will be no silver bullet on sustainability; change will take place due to a combination of factors. So, we already adapted at a quite early stage the gas to liquids or GTL fuel, which resulted in increased air quality. We’re now looking at electrical cranes and power packs for the SPMT fleet. We’re also looking at hydrogen as an option, as it is quite a strong energy carrier and will allow us to operate in remote locations and still do so in a sustainable way. Besides these measures, we are using our Trailer Power Assist system to reduce the number of trucks needed for transportations; our Enviro-Mat additive to provide a solid lifting surface that can be crushed into the ground after projects without environmental impact, and we have also switched from hardwood timbers to sustainable bamboo across all operations. So, there are many developments – we are not betting on one horse. We are following all opportunities and are tapping into what we think are the best solutions. JK: We are using our role as market leader to push our traditional suppliers to come up with better alternatives. We are putting a lot of work into making our own fleet more energy and fuel-efficient, with smaller power packs to avoid idling engine time. We are also looking into the transition of power packs and powertrains to electrify them.

PvG: When we were progressing with the integration of ALE, at the same time we were hit by the coronavirus crisis, just like every other

ALE was a strong partner for freight forwarders and Mammoet is wisely following this strategy and concentrating on optimising the service it provides to freight forwarders.

A requirement will develop for transport companies to move into larger weights, because these floating structures can become massive beasts”

company in our industry. It was a challenging year – maybe that’s an understatement – but we wanted to come up with the right approach. We wanted to come out of the coronavirus crisis as a stronger company.

So, we engaged with a consultant to review our geographic locations, our performance, the economic outlook. We ran scenarios about how regions would develop, following the pandemic. Based on that process, we are making changes across our business; in Australia, in South America, in Europe - and it’s all around optimising our portfolio of locations, clusters and countries, to continue to serve the customer in the best way possible during the upcoming period of recovery and growth.

PvG: It’s all about achieving clarity and focus. For example, we have always had a strong portfolio in nuclear. This was always a capability, a strength within Mammoet, and we want to build upon that on a global scale. We already touched upon the renewables sector. Eastern Europe is strategically a very interesting part of the world for us that we can further grow. We are developing a plan of how to grow rapidly in Germany and use that as a springboard to serve Eastern Europe. In Australia we’re building up an organisation that could be used to expand further into Southeast Asia. DA: We are refocusing, reshaping and ramping up where we see opportunities. The coming years will be a period of growth for Mammoet.

PvG: Looking back, it was good that we decided to start with this strategy in 2018, so the year 2020 - while it has been dreadful for the whole world with the coronavirus – has allowed us to test our strategy to see how resilient we were as a company. The positive outcome of this is that we are a resilient company and we were able to deliver a good result, during the past year. With the integration of ALE, which went well and was completed ahead of schedule delivering all synergies, we came out of the crisis as a strong, resilient company with a proven business model, and at a size that allows us to deliver what our customers would like from us. We are now well-positioned to support our client base in the recovery after the coronavirus crisis. We will see a surge of new projects, and with the investments we have made over the last few years and the strategy that we adopted, we feel very confident to be able to supply the best service to our customers. Our Q1 2021 order intake was strong. Based on this, the outlook for the coming three years is very positive; and the best it has been in a number of years.

Cellcentric, a company formed by two of the undisputed heavyweights of the commercial vehicles industry – Daimler Truck AG and Volvo Group – finally received its global launch last month. Fusing together the two fierce competitors to focus on hydrogen-based fuel cells for long-haul trucks is no small undertaking. However, with the legal and structural work now behind them, Martin Daum, CEO of Daimler Truck AG, and Martin Lundstedt, CEO of Volvo Group are ready to talk on why Cellcentric will become a leading global manufacturer of fuel-cell systems, starting with the construction of one of Europe’s largest planned series production of fuel-cell systems.

That plant’s operation is planned to start production in 2025 but both men agree that to accelerate the rollout of hydrogen-based fuel-cells there needs to be a harmonised EU hydrogen policy framework to support the technology in becoming a viable commercial solution.In short, they want the bloc to help put 300 high-performance hydrogen refuelling stations suitable for heavy-duty vehicles on highways by 2025 with that number ramping up to around 1,000 hydrogen refuelling stations “no later than 2030” across Europe. Their argument is that by using hydrogen as a carrier of green electricity to power electric trucks in long-haul operations, is one important part of decarbonising of road transport.

“Hydrogen-powered fuel-cell electric trucks will be key for enabling CO2-neutral transportation in the future. In combination with pure battery-electric drives, it enables us to offer our customers the best genuinely locally CO2-neutral vehicle options, depending on the application. Battery-electric trucks alone will not make this possible,” says Daum. “Together with our partner Volvo Group, we are therefore fully committed

to our fuel-cell joint venture cellcentric and we are both pushing forward the development of the technology as well as the series production preparations. Regarding the necessary hydrogen infrastructure, it is clear that green hydrogen is the only sensible way forward in the long term.

For decades, the European truck manufacturers have had been set targets by the EU on its emissions. This is in turn has loaded on development costs and skewed planning for the new truck generations. They have also seen initiatives, such as biodiesel, wax and wane in that time as policies and politicians change. Even if it is designed to steer discussion at the very highest levels while leaning on their status of huge employers and industrial engines in the EU, Cellcentric’s focus on the state-of-the-art technology to get the fuel into the market is about as near to a disrupter as the two giant organisations can get.

“Our united ambition is to meet the targets in the Paris agreement of becoming CO2-neutral by 2050 at the latest,” says Lundstedt. “We are convinced that hydrogen fuel-cell technology plays an essential role in helping us reach that milestone. But we know there is so much more to achieve than just the electrification of machines and vehicles. There needs to be greater cooperation between public and private stakeholders to develop the necessary technology and infrastructure, which is why we are calling for united action from policymakers and governments around the world in helping us make hydrogen fuel-cell technology a success. Partnerships like cellcentric are vital to our commitment to decarbonising road transport.”

Daum adds: “When you start working together you have discussions about solutions and who should do what. You start to talk about what you should do together with your capabilities. We have a fantastic set of people competences to really develop a fuel cell stacks that are competitive. We are up and running and we are building on a lot of work that has already been done.”

While hydrogen fuel-cell technology remains further in the distance than say, the hybrid and electric vehicles that are emerging on the market, they share the commercial challenge of proving they can be affordable for fleets.

“We are reducing the cost as we speak; step-by-step in a very concrete roadmap so we can see the cost parity with both the scaling of volumes and engineering. We are also working on pre-series production in

Both Daum and Lundstedt want their companies to share the commercial challenge of proving hydrogen can be affordable for fleets.

Essling and Stuttgart,” explains Lundstedt before revealing that Daimler, Volvo and Renault fleet customers will be approached for trials in the next three years as the production plant comes on-stream.

“It will be a large, Gigafactory. Serial production will be in 2025. The location to be announced in 2022.”

Daum and Lundstedt frequently mention the word investment and the plant represents a bold and risky pay out for a technology that remains someway behind the electric, ion-based battery drives in both political and public minds. Lundstedt argues that there is a place for both and stresses

that it will be essential if the EU and other governments are serious about reaching the climate goals set out in the Paris agreement.

Lundstedt says that it is not enough to continue to only invest in more research in developing lighter, smaller electric vehicle batteries and fast charging systems.

“We are seeing the two tracks obviously with two different contents. Of course, fast charging (for instance) is very important, and we will continue to drive in the eco-system. But in the long run to get these millions of tonnes kilometres every year, all over the place and in all applications, we are going to need hydrogen. It is a contender for renewable energy generation and our conviction is that we need the two of them. Fuel cells have an advantage in certain applications and electric battery vehicles have advantages in others. Both will play a very important role.”

“In the next two or three years, clearly it will be battery electric (leading the way),” adds Daum. “But then we are talking 10,000 trucks on the road. In this small volume battery electric is certainly more viable. When we are looking at the end of the decade and especially the time after 2030 and going up to 2035 we need a second source. We don’t have a revolutionary breakthrough on battery technology. We don’t have an idea of what a green power network grid is going to look like.

“I also absolutely see the price of the fuel cell being lower than today’s battery packs. Or even tomorrow’s battery packs will be the same price.”

Hydrogen could help countries reach their green transport targets with electric battery technology still in its long-haul infancy.

He pauses and firmly strikes a finger downwards: “The majority of our energy comes from carbon burning plants. When everything you do has to come from green energy, that’s everything the entire population does, whether that’s heating our homes or running our industries, you will have to transport your energy from a place that has enough sun or wind power. The most efficient way to do that is by transporting hydrogen energy in a truck. I see things running parallel with most of the truck applications being hydrogen.”

Current targets set by the EU state that vehicle emissions must be reduced by 90% by 2050. Both Daimler and Volvo agree that a policy framework is needed to ensure demand and affordability. They argue this should include incentives for CO2-neutral technologies and a taxation system based on carbon and energy content. An emissions trading system could be an additional option.

“For me, the road to zero-emissions is like a multiplication, we need an attractive vehicle offering by, the latest, 2027. Then we need an infrastructure,” says Daum. “This is a huge undertaking, much bigger even than we need on the vehicle side. It’s very demanding. It requires a huge amount of investment: a classic chicken and egg problem. If we were to have the infrastructure, it would be extremely easy to sell 100,000 trucks. And if we were to have a 100,000 fuel cell trucks, it would be very supply them with the infrastructure.

“We need the support of the energy companies and we need the support of the politicians to get that first initial investment up and going. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter how good our product offering is. We had fuel cells in buses 10 or 15 years ago, the biggest problem so far is a lack of infrastructure.”

At the highest levels the message appears to be getting through. The EU Commission which sets out the laws that will be implemented by member states has vocally supportive of the progress being made in hydrogen fuel cell technology – even if individual governments are still not matching the cellcentric partner’s ambitions for a continent-crossing network

Both Daimler and Volvo agree that a policy framework is needed to ensure demand and affordability.

of infrastructure. However this could be set to change over the coming months.

Adina Valean, European Commissioner for Transport, says that currently transport represents almost a quarter of all emissions in the bloc with road transport contributing a staggering 70%. She remains positive that the technology can be a major asset in reaching the EU’s climate goals, particularly in long-haul applications: “But we are not there yet,” she says.

“Work is still needed before hydrogenpowered lorries are ready for the market. At the European level we want to ensure that the right conditions are in place to help the sector. This requires a holistic approach looking at both the demand and supply sides for vehicles and fuels,” she explains. “We need our European transport infrastructure to be ready to accommodate a new generation of lorries and we have set ourselves shortened goals.

Valean says the EU commission wants to have 500 hydrogen stations set up in 20 countries by 2025 ahead of fulfilling cellcentric’s ambitions of a 1,000 by 2030. The next step will be the release of a proposal to individual member states in the summer which will place binding agreements for rolling out hydrogen refuelling infrastructure. She adds that financial support will be made available “where needed” as well as direct help to industry to build a hydrogen value chain.

“We can and will accelerate the production of clean hydrogen – which we urgently need,” she says.

Cellcentric is aiming for series producton to begin in 2027 – it is a huge undertaking, says Daum.

EU Commissioner Adina Valean says work is still needed to get hydrogen heavy vehicles on the road, with fueling infrastructure a major challenge.

With hydrogen made from renewable sources only representing 1% of total fuel production today, scale is needed to meet future demand.

In 2019, The European Commission presented the European Green Deal which outlined the main policy initiatives for reaching net-zero global warming emissions by 2050. Within its pages, Hydrogen is described as a key instrument for meeting the document’s policy objectives.

French MEP Pascal Canfin was a long-standing advocate for the introduction of the EU Green Deal and he says that a total of 50 laws will be put forward to individual states to approve over the next 18 months. This in turn will help the commercial vehicle makers and the transport industry fund a move to hydrogen.

“We are going to change the rules of the game 50 times,” he affirms. “The laws will set new standards on pricing, a new battery framework and new technology. When you do that you have a systemic change. We are going to move 2,5 times faster up to 2030 than we did in the last decade. This is a generational journey up and until 2050. Hydrogen is the key element. The stars are aligned at the European, national, technical and for public and private financing.”

Professor Dr Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, placing the role of hydrogen into context, says the EU is now part of a G3 group alongside the US and China of large economies that are driving progress in reducing global emissions. While he agrees that the EU is now set on the right path for attracting financing as it decarbonises transport he also adds some caveating.

“Yes there is a very important plan set in motion but we are not seeing the implementation at scale or at the right pace yet.”

Professor Rockstrom adds that the return of the US to the climate table following the turbulent departure of Donald Trump means that the EU is no longer leading the way when it comes to tackling climate change.

“When you look at the numbers, the world’s largest single economy has set the net zero target to 2050 and they have put 2005 as the reference year. This means 40% reductions between 2021 and 2030 while the European Union is slightly lower [the EU is targeting 55% by 2030, but the reduction compares with the earlier date of 1990 - ed].

“This is not a silver bullet, but it is part of our portfolio mix with synthetic fuels, some biofuels in transitions and direct electrification. But as Martin Daum rightly points out direct electrification will be running the exponential demand curve for personal mobility and will be in such large demand that hydrogen for heavy mobility must be part of the solution.”

With hydrogen made from renewable sources only representing 1% of total production today, Rockstrom says scale is needed to meet future demand: “The challenge now is how do we get enough green hydrogen. We also need the price of carbon to rise and the provision of hydrogen to be operationalised at scale,” he stops to talk directly to Daum and Lundstedt. “It is so valuable that you (Volvo and Daimler) have now stepped up said ‘we are moving ahead”. That will pull the whole society with you.”

BOSCH LAUNCHES ADVANCED ODOMETER / JLR AND GOOGLE MAPS PARTNER / BAUMA DELAYED BY SIX MONTHS / VOLVO SETS AMBITIOUS EMISSIONS TARGET

Bosch has launched its most advanced ECU multifunctional tester – Bosch KTS 250 in the UAE. The device enables reading of mileage data stored at a vehicle’s different control units to avoid possible odometer manipulations.

According to Bosch, it allows automotive businesses and experts to comparing the data with the mileage shown on the odometer, “they can easily determine whether the odometer mileage is plausible or if it differs from the other values. This can have a significant influence on the vehicle’s current value in cases of used vehicle valuations, leasing return or even for expert reports concerning the vehicle value. It allows insurance companies to include this test into their damage assessment or even to ensure compliance with the contractually agreed annual mileage.” In most cases, a vehicle’s mileage is not only stored at the odometer on the instrument cluster at the vehicle’s dashboard, but also at a large variety of different electronic control units the vehicle is equipped with, explained Bosch.

“Even the seat memory or the park assist control unit can store information on the vehicle mileage. Throughout the last years, modern vehicles have been equipped with a continuously growing number of control units. As a result, the actual mileage of today’s vehicles is often stored at different sources simultaneously.

“Once the Bosch KTS 250 diagnostic tester has been connected to the vehicle by means of the OBD cable, it allows reading out the actual values of the control units and the fault memory. The new KTS 250 mileage readout function creates a list of the individual mileage values stored at the different control units. Afterwards, wireless network connection can be used to print the diagnostic protocol sending it to the workshop network printer or to send it by e-mail – as an attachment and right from KTS 250.”

Jaguar Land Rover has partnered with Google to integrate the allelectric Jaguar I-PACE with air quality measuring sensors and Street View mapping technology.

The I-PACE is the first all-electric Google vehicle and will be used to measure street-by-street air quality in Dublin – including nitrogen dioxide (NO ) and carbon dioxide (CO22 ) emissions, and fine particles (PM2.5). It will also help update Google Maps.

The green car offers zerotailpipeemissions driving, and has been equipped with specialised mobile air sensors developed by Aclima and has launched in Dublin to capture data over the next 12 months.

Google’s scientific research partners will analyse the data and develop maps of street-level air pollution.

The organisers of Bauma, the world’s biggest trade fair for the construction equipment sector, have announced that the next edition of the event has been postponed to October 24, 2022, from its earlier announced date of April 4-10.

Organisers Messe München said in a statement that the new date for the event is October 24–30, 2022, and that the decision, taken in view of the Covid-19 situation, is the result of many discussions it had with top industry representatives as well as its Advisory Board.

“Considering the particularly long planning times for exhibitors and organisers at the world’s largest trade show, the decision had to be made now. This provides exhibitors and visitors a secure planning basis for preparing the upcoming Bauma,” added a statement from the organisers.

It added that initially, Bauma was to be held from April 04 to 10, 2022 and “despite the pandemic, both the industry’s response and the booking level were very high”.

However, in numerous discussions with customers, there was a growing recognition that the April date involved too many uncertainties in view of the global pandemic.

“The prevailing opinion was that it is currently difficult to assess whether worldwide travel — which is crucial for the success of the trade show — will be largely unhindered again in a year’s time,” said Messe München in its statement.

The postponement was especially advocated by global exhibitors, who expect customers from all over the world to attend the event and make correspondingly high investments in stand construction, logistics and hotel capacity.

Volvo Cars is aiming for annual savings of SEK 1 billion (over USD $119m) and reductions of 2.5 million tonnes in carbon emissions from 2025 using circular business principles.

Supporting the company’s long-term goal of becoming a circular business by 2040, Volvo Cars will create closed material loops for emission-heavy materials such as steel and aluminium, as well as remanufacture, repair, reuse and refurbish parts.

“Volvo Cars has one of the most ambitious climate plans in the car industry, and if we are to reach our goals, we need to embrace the circular economy,” said Anders Kärrberg, Head of Global Sustainability at Volvo Cars. “This requires us to rethink everything we do and how we do it.”

To become a circular business by 2040, Volvo Cars is convinced that every part in its cars should be designed, developed and manufactured to be used and re-used, either by the company or its suppliers.

By focusing on resource efficiency and retaining the value created in materials and components for as long as possible during the lifecycle, the company wants to optimise the use of materials, components and cars and eliminate waste in the process. In 2020, around 40,000 parts were remanufactured, saving nearly 3,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. By 2025, Volvo Cars aim to more than double its remanufacturing business. The company recycled 95% of its production waste last year, including176,000 tonnes of steel, avoiding the generation of nearly 640,000 tonnes of CO2.

Volvo Cars is looking at the complete lifecycle for for cost savings and is even remanufacturing parts as gears and engines.

EV Lab says a strong community is needed to popularise electric vehicles as sustainable mode of transport.

EV Lab has hosted the first-ever electric vehicle Track Day event in Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina F1 Circuit.

The first event of its kind in the UAE, Track Day fosters conversation and active engagement among electric vehicle owners and enthusiasts, and serves to underline the value that EVs lend to the nation as the UAE moves towards reinforcing its resolve to fight climate change.

The Track Day event at Yas Marina recorded over 120 attendees between EV owners and enthusiasts from across the seven Emirates, and also shone the spotlight on the EV models available in the UAE. On show were EVs by Mercedes Benz Abu Dhabi, Porsche Abu Dhabi, MG Motors, and Audi, all through Ali & Sons, Chevy by Bin Hamoodah, Renault by Al Rostamani, Tesla, and Chevrolet Dubai through Al Ghandi.

Participants had the opportunity to test drive their vehicles at the legendary Yas Marina F1 circuit and to take hot laps with professional drivers in exclusive vehicles such as the Porsche Taycan, Mercedes EQC, MG, Audi Etron, Tesla, Chevrolet.

The Audi E-tron GT also made its first public appearance during the event.

Kevin Chalhoub, Founder & CEO at EV Lab, said: “The Track Day in Abu Dhabi follows the overwhelming success of the first Cars & Coffee event we hosted in Dubai.

“The event served as a window for EV owners and enthusiasts to network and learn more about the trends and advances in the electric vehicle sector. We are honoured that our event series has gained such popularity among the UAE community, especially as it followed the recent resolution by the national leadership to reduce emissions and build a greener environment.